Through supporting the Serondella Foundation*, the Filum Foundation supports schoolchildren who grow up in disadvantaged and impoverished circumstances in South Africa. The Serondella’s foundation’s objective is to make a meaningful and measurable difference in these children’s lives, both now and in preparing them for life after school. The foundation’s principal programme, reaching the largest number of children each year, is the Sponsor-a-Child Programme which supports primary and secondary school children in Mpumalanga, South Africa, a region where poverty is widespread, by providing eligible children with a complete schooluniform and all the necessary accessories. These children grow up in households with little or no income, families experiencing severe financial hardship, or children living in other forms of extreme poverty. Alcoholism and single-parent households are common, as are large families in which brothers and sisters partly have to care for one another. In many cases, there simply is no money available for a school uniform. A schooluniform increases the likelihood that children can participate fully in their education. It helps a child feel seen, included and valued. In this way, a schooluniform contributes to equal opportunities in far more ways than one. The Foundation supports hundreds of scholars every year with a uniform. It is a donation that has an immediate and visible impact on a child’s life.
*) The Serondella Foundation is an officially established non-profit organisation under South African law (comparable to an ANBI in the Netherlands). The activities and objectives of the Serondella Foundation are funded by the Filum Foundation and fully aligned with it’s initiatives and objectives.